The invention relates to a storage receptacle for objects, comprising a storage device and a transport device with an object carrier designed for respectively receiving an object. The invention furthermore relates to a storage receptacle comprising a storage cabinet for storing a plurality of objects and a storage arrangement which is designed integrally with the storage cabinet.
Such a storage arrangement can be used by itself, i.e. without the storage cabinet, or integrally with the storage cabinet. The storage arrangement consists of a storage device and a transport device. The storage device contains storage spaces for storing objects, a transfer space for the short-term reception of objects prior to and following their storage, and a transport device for moving the objects between the delivery device and the storage spaces. The delivery spaces are formed by compartments, which are arranged on top of each other, of one or several storage shafts. The transport device is used for transporting the objects between the storage spaces and the delivery device, it comprises an object carrier, which is moved by means of a vertical displacement device, a horizontal rotating device and a horizontal displacement device.
A storage receptacle of the type mentioned essentially consists of a storage cabinet and a storage arrangement. The storage cabinet is designed in the manner of a housing and has a lock window opening in one of its walls, which can be closed by means of a lock window, through which objects can be passed prior to or after having been stored.
Within the framework of the present specification, objects are understood to be individual articles as well as containers with various contents, in particular also flowable contents.
A storage receptacle of the type mentioned at the outset is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,229, for example. It is used for storing electronic storage devices, such as cassettes or CDs, and it could also be used in the same design for books, boxes and like objects. The delivery device of this storage receptacle is located in the interior of the storage cabinet, namely in its own cabinet section, and is designed for being able to receive a plurality of objects. The objects to be stored assume an oblique position in the storage cabinet, at the delivery device and during their transport by means of the transport device. In its dimensions the lock window opening corresponds to the delivery device in such a way that, with the lock window open, the entire delivery device is accessible from the exterior of the storage cabinet. Although this storage receptacle is suitable for its intended purpose, namely the storage of objects such as electronic storage devices, for which storage conditions, such as temperature, humidity and the type of the surrounding fluid need only be maintained within the widest margins, it is not suited for the storage of objects which need to be kept under controllable conditions or at least free of duct during a defined amount of time. The storage arrangement of this storage receptacle is unsuited to receive objects which are constituted by receptacles with contents of flowable materials and therefore must always assume a horizontal position.
Storage receptacles with controlled climatic conditions are needed, for example, if the objects to be stored are substances which are to be cultured and which optimally thrive only under defined temperature and humidity conditions, as well as in an exactly defined gasification atmosphere. Another application example for such storage receptacles is the short-term storage of substances Which must be stored while exactly defined climatic conditions are maintained. Since the substances to be processed are comparatively expensive, there is the desire to process them only in minimal amounts. Accordingly, correspondingly small storage devices, or respectively storage cabinets, are required for efficient processing or storage, while the requirements regarding the stability of the climate inside the storage cabinets nets rise out of proportion. Corresponding to the reduction of the storage devices and the storage cabinets, the permissible dimensions for the transport devices, which are used for loading and unloading the storage devices, also shrink, and the space requirement of each apparatus must be kept as small as possible.
As already mentioned, the storage receptacle in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,229 is un-suitable for such purposes, namely in particular because of the design and arrangement of the delivery device and the dimensions of the lock window opening. The arrangement of the delivery device in the interior of the storage cabinet and its design for receiving a plurality of objects require that the lock window opening be comparatively large and that the lock window dow needs to be opened very often and/or for very long times, which is detrimental to the stability of the climate inside the storage cabinet.
A climate-controlled storage cabinet has become known from EP 0 293 782 which, however, also has a comparatively large opening for stocking and emptying. Since the dimensions of the opening are of importance for the stability of the climate which is all the greater, the smaller a climate-controlled cabinet is, no stable climatic conditions can be achieved in the interior of this climate-controlled cabinet because of the large opening.
Swiss Patent Application No. 1997 1097/97 describes a climate-controlled storage receptacle with a storage device in the form of a rotatable turntable. The transport device comprises a vertical displacement device, or respectively an elevator system for bringing an object carrier heightwise into a suitable position for the delivery of objects, and a horizontal displacement device for delivering or receiving objects. A horizontally-rotating device, by means of which the turntable is rotated, is used for the angular alignment of the object carrier on the storage device. Because of the space requirements for such a turntable, it is not possible to produce such a climate-controlled cabinet with an integrated turntable in a small size. Moreover, this arrangement is dynamically disadvantageous, since the comparatively large mass of the turntable must be accelerated and decelerated time and again.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,024 discloses a module-like system of a storage receptacle, and in particular a transport device in numerous variations, wherein practically all movement sequences which are possible at all are being described, which actually do not constitute an invention. But a storage receptacle with a single lock window opening is not described.
It can be stated that the previously known storage arrangements and storage receptacles do not meet the requirements which arise in the course of transporting and storing objects, and in particular in connection with processing of small amounts, but a large number, of substances. The problems in connection with the temporary storage of such substances under controllable climatic conditions in particular have not been resolved.
It is therefore the object of the invention,
to provide a storage receptacle of the type mentioned at the outset, which avoids the disadvantages of the prior art and permits an efficient manipulation of small objects, and
to provide a storage receptacle of the type mentioned at the outset, which avoids the disadvantages of the prior art, wherein the exchange of the ambient air, or respectively ambient gas, occurring when the lock window is opened, is minimized.
In accordance with the invention, this object is attained
in connection with the storage arrangement of the type mentioned at the outset by means of the features of the characterizing portion of claim 1, and
in connection with a storage receptacle of the type mentioned at the outset by means of the features of the characterizing portion of claim 9.
Advantageous further developments of the storage arrangement of the invention and storage receptacle of the invention are respectively defined in dependent claims 2 to 8, or respectively 10 to 20.
The storage arrangement is designed in such a way that the transport paths and the masses, which must be accelerated, or respectively decelerated, in the course of transporting the objects, are small.
The objects can assume a horizontal, or at least approximately horizontal position in the storage spaces, in the delivery devices and on the object carrier. Therefore the storage arrangement is particularly, however not exclusively, suited for objects constituted by dishes or containers containing flowable masses, which therefore should no be tilted around horizontal axes.
The actual storage device comprises one or several storage shafts. Each storage shaft is designed in such a way that it has a compartment-like storage space respectively on several levels, in which it can receive one or possibly several objects.
In general the storage shafts are not connected with each other. They are arranged in a star shape, so to speak, to constitute the storage device in such a way that their vertical center planes intersect in a common vertical axis. The objects can be individually transported. To this end, the objects are taken individually out of the storage shafts. However, the objects can also be transported in groups. To this end, they are transported together with the storage shaft in which they are arranged. Thus, in this case the storage device is not only used for storage, but also as a transport shaft, or respectively transport cask, for the objects.
The transport device of the storage arrangement has an object carrier for the temporary reception of respectively one object during its transport and serves three purposes: firstly, the transport device displaces the objects vertically over the height of the storage device, secondly, the transport device pivots the objects horizontally between angular positions, wherein the object carrier is oriented either to the opening of a storage shaft or to the delivery device, and thirdly, the transport device pushes the object carrier between an inner, or respectively transport, position, which it assumes during the vertical displacement and the horizontal displacement of the objects, and an outer, or respectively delivery, position, in which the object carrier can receive or deliver an object, to which end it projects into a storage shaft, or into the area of the delivery space. All movements of the objects are therefore caused by the transport device, in contrast to some of the known storage arrangements, in which the objects are moved not by the transport device, but by the rotatably designed storage device. The novel storage device is advantageous in comparison to the known turntable-like storage devices, because the alternating acceleration and deceleration of the relatively large mass of the turntable is avoided. Furthermore, no imbalance is created in case of irregularly, or respectively not completely, loaded storage devices. Moreover, it is simpler to install and remove storage devices, which need not move during the operation of the climate-controlled cabinet, in or from the climate-controlled cabinet. Finally, it is also possible by means of the novel arrangement to place the storage shafts into holding devices designed in the same way inside a storage cabinet, in particular a climate-controlled cabinet, during the treatment of objects, and outside of the storage cabinet during the storage of objects.
In general, the storage spaces of the storage shafts, and the delivery device designed as a transfer platform do not have continuous deposit surfaces forming the receiving elements for the objects, but only lateral support strips extending in the direction of the respective linear displacement of the object carrier. Thus, objects located in the storage spaces, or respectively in the transfer device, only rest with their lateral edge zones on the support strips. The support plate used as an object carrier and which can have openings, is narrower as a whole than the mutual distance of the support strips of a compartment. Therefore objects resting on the object carrier only rest with a center zone on the object carrier. To pick up an object from the support space, the unloaded object carrier is brought underneath the object at the elevation of a lower limit of a level, is then raised to an upper limit of the same level, in the process of which it lifts the object off the support strips, and finally the object carrier is retracted out of the compartment at the upper limit. To place an object into a storage space, the process is reversed. In an analogous manner, and with a suitable design of the delivery device, an object can be taken from the delivery device by the object carrier, or respectively transferred to the delivery device by the object carrier. The just described arrangement makes it possible to avoid tilting the objects and to always store, or respectively transport, them in the same position in respect to the vertical direction.
At its outer edge facing away from the vertical axis of the transport device, and on its inner edge facing the vertical axis of the transport device, the object carrier can have positioning elements, which provide the correct positioning of the objects on the object carrier when picking up the objects and transporting them.
It has furthermore been shown to be advantageous to provide the object carrier with lateral guide elements in order to guide the objects when they are being received on the object carrier and to position them on the object carrier during their further transport, or respectively to prevent them from being laterally displaced in respect to the object carrier. It is particularly advantageous to mount the lateral guide elements in such a way that they perform the vertical displacement and the horizontal pivoting together with the object carrier, but do not perform the horizontal displacement. An object which is taken out of a storage space or a delivery device with the aid of the object carrier is being pulled during the horizontal movement of the object carrier from the outer transfer position into the inner transfer position between the lateral guide elements, which are fixed in place, so to speak.
For transferring the objects between the object carrier and one of the storage spaces or the delivery device, the objects and the object carrier can also be designed and operate in the manner of pallets and fork lifts. The object carrier of the transport device, which receives objects which are to be transported individually during the transport, can also be designed in a manner not represented as a gripper device for grasping and holding the objects.
The novel storage receptacle comprises the actual storage cabinet, as well as a storage arrangement, such as described above, arranged in the storage cabinet. The novel storage receptacle has at least one lock window opening, which is oriented toward the delivery device of the storage arrangement. In accordance with the invention, the dimensions of the lock window opening are only slightly larger than the dimensions of one of the objects. It is achieved by means of this that the climate in the storage cabinet is practically unaffected by the opening of the lock window, so that the stability of the climate is very great. Moreover, the delivery device is arranged outside of the storage cabinet, so that no space for it is needed anymore inside the actual storage area.
This novel storage receptacle is particularly suited for the storage and transportation of substances, or respectively objects, used in minimal amounts, because they are compactly constructed, so that the space requirements, as well as the transport distances, are minimized. Because of its great climatic stability, the novel receptacle is also advantageous for minimal amounts, since adverse climatic conditions have particularly grave results in connection with the processing of minimal amounts.
The delivery device in the storage cabinet is designed in such a way that it can preferably receive one, but also several objects awaiting further transportation.
If the objects contain flowable materials, it is advantageous, or even imperative, to always maintain them in the horizontal position, or respectively not to tilt them around a horizontal position. For this purpose the storage spaces and the delivery device are designed as horizontal lateral depositories, as described above, and the transport device is designed, as described above, in such a way that the objects are always in a horizontal position on the object carrier.
In addition to the lock window opening, the storage cabinet advantageously has a further opening, namely a door opening which is closed by means of a door. This is intended to constitute a transport path for at least one storage shaft of the storage device when the door is open, wherein the door opening in general is arranged on a wall different from the lock window opening. When being transported, the storage shafts, which are therefore used as transport shafts, or respectively transport casks, can be entirely or partially filled with objects, or they can be empty.
The storage cabinet can be climatized, or respectively designed as a climate-controlled cabinet. In this case the space it encloses is preferably divided into a climate-controlled zone, in which the storage device and the transport device are arranged, and an apparatus zone, in which a climate generator, and preferably the control for the transport device and/or the lock window, are arranged. For operating the climate-controlled cabinet it is generally advantageous to arrange the apparatus zone in the extension of the vertical axis, i.e. below or above the climate-controlled zone.
It is particularly advantageous for this if the storage shafts are separated from each other and can be individually removed from the climate-controlled cabinet.
In an advantageous embodiment, the storage device contains at least two storage shafts, which are arranged in a star shape around a vertical axis in such a way, that their vertical center planes intersect in the vertical axis, wherein the inlet, or respectively outlet, openings of the storage shafts are oriented toward the vertical axis constituting the pivot axis of the horizontal rotating device.
A device, which opens the lock window as soon as the elevation and angular position of the object carrier is aligned with the lock window for delivering or receiving an object, makes the operation of the climate-controlled receptacle efficient.
In certain cases it can be advantageous to protect the delivery device by providing it with a hood-like protecting device.
Further properties and advantages of the invention will be described in what follows by means of exemplary embodiments and by making reference to the drawings.